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A. NOBLE.

APPARATUS FOR WASHING GUNS.

No. 368,963. Patented Aug. 30, 1887.

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U ITED STATES PATENT Prion.

ANDREW NOBLE, on NnWoAsTLE-UPoN-rYNn, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO w. e. ARMSTRONG, MITOHELL& oo., (LIMITED,) OF sAMn PLACE.

APPARATUS FOR WASHING GUNS.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 368,963, dated August 30, 1887.

Application filed May 10, 1887. Serial No. 237,735. (No model.) Patented in England September 16, 1885, No. 11,000.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ANDREW NOBLE, late captain in the Royal Artillery,of J esmonddene House, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, manufacturing engineer, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for I/Vashing Guns, (for which Ihave obtained Letters Patent in Great Britain, No. 11,000, dated September 16, 1885,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object a machine for supplying a jet of water at a sufficiently high pressure to wash out heavy guns. The machine comprises a hydraulic cylinder, with piston and rod working a force-pump. These arecombined with a tank holdingv the water to be used in washing the gun.

The purpose is, first, to avoid using to waste the fresh water circulating in the hydraulic system fitted in the ship, as this water at times cannot be easily replaced; second, to avoid having recourse to the fire-main system, as it is inconvenient to have to do so, and, third, to enable a definite quantity of water to be used for each washing of the gun, to guard against the tendency to insufficiently wash the gun in the hurry of action. 7

At the top of the machine is a hydraulic cylinder, in which is a piston and rod. This cylinderis supplied with hydraulic pressure from a slide-valve attached to it. The slidevalve is worked through its spindle by alever fitted with a balance-weight or acted on by a spring, so that the slide-valve is brought automatically into the position which admits the pressure-water to the under side of the piston, causing the piston to rise. The piston-rod is directly attached to a force-pump plunger, and this consequently is automatically lifted to draw a charge of water into the force-pump by a passage in which is an inlet-valve. The machine thus, when left at rest, charges itself and remains charged ready for use. The pumpcylinder is larger than the hydraulic cylinder, a small quantity of fluid under high pressure being employed to discharge a larger quantity under comparatively low pressure.

To use the machine the hand-lever and balance-weight are lifted. This moves the slide valve into the position for admitting pressure to the top side of the piston. The piston is possible or can be connected with another tank, as the circumstances of the case may best admit, is filled with sea or other water, a sufficient quantity being therein contained to wash the gun out as many times as it is considered will be necessary between the opportunities of refilling the tanks.

In order that my said invention may be full understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe thedrawingshereunto annexed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of an apparatus for washing guns, arranged in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the center line of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on the center line of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section taken on the line A A in Figs. 3 and 4. Fig. 6 is a horizontal section taken on the line B B in Fig. 8, and Fig. 7 is a horizontal section taken on theline O O in Fig. 4.

The tank, which can be made as large as.

D is the hydraulic cylinder, and E is the rod of the piston working within it.

F is the slide-valve, admitting water under pressure from any suitable source to one side or the other of the piston, according to the position into which it is moved.

G is a hand-lever carrying a weight, G. This lever when left alone so places thevalve that water may enter beneath the piston and pass away from the space above. When the hand-lever is lifted, these conditions are reversed.

' H is a plunger fixed onto the piston-rod.

J is a pump-cylinder, which the plunger enters when the hydraulic piston descends.

K is the tank containinga supply of seawater. The cylinder J is filled from it through an inlet suction-valve (shown at J when the plunger H rises.

J is an aperture in the side of the cylinder .I, at which an outlet-valve is fitted and a suitable flexible pipe applied.

Having now particularly described and as certained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is- 5 The combination, in apparatus for washing guns, of a tank, a pump-cylinder, a valve by way of which water passes from the tank to the pump-cylinder, a plunger working in the pump-cylinder, a piston-rod of smaller diame- 1o ter than and secured to the plunger in line with it, a hydraulic cylinder of smaller diameter than the pump-cylinder and in which the piston-rod works, a valve for admitting water under pressure to either end oi the hydraulic cylinder, and a lever acted on by a spring or 15 weight to normally hold the valve in position for admitting water under pressure to that end of the hydraulic cylinder, which will cause the pump-plunger to be withdrawn from the pump-cylinder and allow the pump-cylinder 20 to fill from the tank, substantially as set forth.

A. NOBLE. Witnesses:

WM. JOHN GREY,

Notary Public. T. Punvis. 

